Mexican pickled onions are the perfect tangy condiment to your favourite Mexican and Tex Mex dishes. With one sauce pan and a jar, you can have restaurant style pickled onions in 30 minutes. These pickled onions are the perfect topping to air fryer taquitos, or bang bang chicken tacos!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
No pickling experience needed! These pickled onions are refrigerator pickle, just like my homemade bloody mary pickles, meaning you do not need to go through the complicated pickling and canning process.
They only need 30 minutes in the refrigerator! While some pickling processes require the vegetable to stay in the pickling liquid for extended periods of time, these Mexican pickled onions are good to use in as short as 30 minutes. The longer they sit, the better they get!
They are extremely versatile! You never realize how amazingly versatile pickled onions are, until you have them in the fridge. They go perfect on most Mexican or Tex-Mex dishes, including our beloved favourite tacos.
Recipe Overview
Flavour: These onions are punchy and tangy, like you would expect from a pickle. If you are worried about the raw onion flavour being overpowering, it is not. It mellows out in the pickling liquid, giving them a perfectly balanced sweet and sour flavour.
Ease: There is minimal effort required to pickle these onions. All you need is a saucepan, and a jar. No crazy complicated canning and pickling techniques here!
Time: In total, including refrigeration time, these pickles are ready to eat and use in 40 minutes. They only take 10 minutes to prepare, though! Some may even say they turn up the volume on some delicious Mexican salad recipes, too!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Red onions: You will need thinly sliced red onions for these pickled onions. I recommend sticking with red onions, as they give off a beautiful pink colour as they pickle. You of course, won't get that same colour with a regular white onion. If your onion is on the larger side, you can cut it in half and cut it into slices, so that it fits into your jar.
White vinegar: White vinegar does not have an overpowering flavour (aside from being vinegar, of course) which makes it great for pickling. You can substitute the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar if you have that on hand instead.
White sugar: White sugar is crucial to the pickling liquid to create a balance of flavour. You may also use sugar substitute such as swerve or splenda, if you are following a low carb or low sugar diet. They generally substitute well 1:1 for sugar.
Spices and seasonings: You will need lime zest, garlic powder and salt. The lime zest is optional. It adds a nice fresh zest to the pickling liquid. You may also add some red pepper flakes to the mix if you want a background spice.
Instructions
- Boil the pickling liquid: In a saucepan, heat together all the ingredients except for the onions, on medium-low heat. Once the mixture is heated through and has come to a low boil, remove from the heat.
- Prepare the onions: While the pickling liquid is boiling, slice the onions and add them to your jar of choice. Make sure the jar you use can sustain the boiling liquid.
- Pour pickling liquid into the jar: Carefully transfer the boiling pickling liquid to the onions in the jar.
- Shake and refrigerate: Let the jar come to room temperature, and put a lid on. Shake well, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Expert Tip
Use a funnel to avoid messy spills and burns when transferring the pickling liquid to the jar! It will make your life easier, and most importantly, cleaner and safer!
Recipe FAQs
These pickled onions will last up to a month in the refrigerator.
Store these onions in the same jar, in the pickling liquid, in the refrigerator.
While there are some recipes that involve no-cook methods, I find that by boiling the mixture, the sugar dissolves much better into the mix.
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Mexican Pickled Onions
Ingredients
- 2 Red onions sliced
- 2 cups Water
- 1 cup White vinegar
- ⅓ cup White sugar
- 1 tablespoon Sea salt
- 2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Lime zested
Equipment
Instructions
- Boil the pickling liquid: In a saucepan, heat together all the ingredients except for the onions, on medium-low heat. Once the mixture is heated through and has come to a low boil, remove from the heat.
- Prepare the onions: While the pickling liquid is boiling, slice the onions and add them to your jar of choice.
- Pour pickling liquid into the jar: Carefully transfer the boiling pickling liquid to the onions in the jar.
- Shake and refrigerate: Let the jar come to room temperature, and put a lid on. Shake well, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
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